Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  “Die! Just die!” I shouted while slashing another two of the monsters apart.

  [Morrigu’s Gift] sat in its two-handed form in my other hand. Holding it with one hand strained my wrist. I punched the [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper] on my arm. Its health caved while my wrist was being crushed by powerful jaws.

  The monster’s eyes crossed as I slammed it with my pommel a third time. Its flesh and gooey eyes oozed as I shook it off. Additional hisses came, and I heard teeth clamping together. I [Blink]ed to a vaguely clear spot, then surveyed the madness.

  More flopped through shallow waters. It looked as if the swamp was writhing in agitation. All of this was Dusk’s fault. First his new-and-improved form gave way, which left me falling to the ground. Apparently the side effect of being [Empowered] was a reduction in state of equal measure. [Blink] and reduced fall damage had kept me alive and landed me in this swamp from hell.

  Hecate: How’s it going out there?

  [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper]s surged toward me in a mob. Killing them simply drew more in from all over. I felt soaked in liquid and couldn’t tell which parts were swamp mud, sweat, or blood. Fighting raiders was almost easier. These mindless beasts showed no hesitation, acting like piranhas trying to feast on my digital flesh.

  “Terrible!” I screamed at the pop-up box while twisting my blades around.

  Teeth nipped my calf. Part of a pinkie was missing. [Bug Repellant] would wear off soon and turn this mess into an even worse nightmare. I cut at another pair of beady eyes and saw them lose focus before I separated head from body. These monsters were too damn short. Attacking any of them felt like trying to stab the ground, unless they leapt up at me.

  The counter for my stored souls was getting closer to where it needed to be. Only four more kills and I would have enough to activate [Mechanical Hades Crown]. The original text said people could chose to bestow souls. In game terms that meant monsters dying counted. Two more went down quickly. I [Blink]ed to a new spot and drove my blade into a creature’s hide. My body slipped as it thrashed around.

  “Got it!” I yelled happily while struggling to get upright again.

  Dusk’s head perked up, and he tucked into the folds of my toga. His small body twisted around as he rolled up fabric to avoid sliding.

  Teeth snapped, and I shouted the stupid [Lithium] chant needed for activation. The brief thought made my forehead pulse with irritation. I’d sworn never to use spoken spells after hearing Requiem use his special moves. Now that I had one of my own, I was willing to make the sacrifice.

  “Mechanical God of the Underworld, lend me your ear!” What I imagined saying and what actually came out were two different things. My voice turned into indecipherable words. I had to trust in the system’s translation of my words to [Lithium]. “Gathered are these forgotten souls. Grant me leave to release them to a final task before crossing the veil! Empower Morrigu’s Gift, empower Morrigu’s Echo!”

  I kept up the chant while working toward a solid piece of land to stand upon. Dull gray lights shot out from around my head and whirled around my body before landing on each blade. Jaws snapped at me as the weight in my hands doubled. I thanked the game for an insane level of [Brawn] but still strained to pick my blades off the ground.

  This was a good spot. I lifted both blades and kicked off the ground with one foot, then I started spinning. Centrifugal force pulled both blades. I struggled to grip them tightly, but the added mass helped me spin faster. My foot kicked automatically, mimicking a dance move for lighter people. One where normally arms were held overhead or tight. I kept pulling both blades back in, then letting them slip again. The blades thudded into multiple objects, but my twisting feet me kept right on turning.

  The world itself went in circles. Landscape tilted into new positions every time I blinked. [Awareness Heightening] gave me still shots of these [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper] in different positions. One came out of the water toward me. Another three crawled over each other. A sixth spread its jaws wide to grab me. In the next pass, they were in pieces while more took their places. In another two spins, those were also broken apart while the first batch looked like giblets.

  The weight tearing at my elbows and shoulders dropped. I heaved my chest and tried to come out of the spin properly. Dizziness tried to tip me into the swamp, but I staggered into position. Pain radiated from everywhere, and I tried not to consider what had happened. Soon I would log out of the ARC and be free of this gross landscape and mud that squished between my sandals.

  I took rapid breaths and tried to steady myself. [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] were lighter than ever. Both sat clutched to my chest in dagger form while my feet balanced carefully upon uneven ground. That move made me dizzy, and I felt numb. My vision wobbled as I scanned the dead bodies for signs of movement. Dusk chirped in an ear, and I tried to ignore him and hear the swamp.

  Trees all around had been mowed down. Bushes had been chopped to bits. Dead carcasses from [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper]s were in even more pieces than they had been. Portions of the dirt were torn and shredded. Water rushed in to fill new grooves.

  No enemies showed up, and the small notification telling me of active combat faded. I waited a few seconds, then put both shapeshifting items into my belt. I poked at the air for food from my player storage. Physical hunger and in-game satiety were pushing even harder to make me unsteady. One of them needed to be solved.

  “Okay.” I nodded as I ate. “Much better.”

  Dusk wriggled and crawled out of my toga. He had been hiding in a ripple next to the [Messenger’s Tube]. That marked the third usage of my new special move. There was no name tied to it. [Empowerment] gave me a long-desired boost to both blades, taking their sheer size, mass, and destructive power to new heights. Hopefully people watching in the audience enjoyed seeing a middle-aged man in a toga performing a pirouette with giant oversized blades.

  “It’s almost worth having to chant Lithium. Almost,” I muttered.

  The move was far cooler and more awkward than Requiem’s teardrop black hole nonsense. Honestly, I didn’t know if he could even use the ability anymore. Technically that skill had been removed when his character had reverted back to default. However, in the last three months, Requiem had been busy pursuing all sorts of leftover quests and grinding out similar skills to what he’d had before his reset. In a few months, the player had regained half his original strength and capabilities. I could tell because I could still spy on his account while I sat in the Trillium van. Only now he had a giant demon with a [Contract].

  Tracking Requiem was proving to be a pain in the rear. Normally I wouldn’t have cared, but the Voices left a message stating Requiem knew how to get toward my next goal. The young man moved quickly toward a destination I didn’t know about. The Voices assured me he was headed toward a mystery section of [Arcadia] they had been blind to until a few days ago.

  I stopped a moment to type out my responses to Xin.

  Hermes: Sorry, large teeth distracted me. Someone forgot to drain the swamp.

  Hecate: That was your job, wasn’t it?

  Hermes: Maybe. It’s drained now, and I think every alligator-thing for miles is now laying in pieces.

  Hecate: Uh oh. How many?

  Hermes: All of them. All of them are dead. I only know they’re all dead because nothing’s trying to eat my face anymore.

  Hecate: You’re still in those swamps, right? Awesome Jr. tells me there’s a monster called the King Fang Fisher out there.

  Hermes: I’m not going to like this, am I?

  Hecate: It’s attracted to dead monsters. Part of the zone’s special murder-you tactics. Don’t look up.

  The dim shadow being cast down upon us moved, and for a moment, I disregarded the change in light. It felt like a sunny day opening up. My eyes scanned Xin’s message rapidly while I tried to understand. I looked up.

  Something absolutely huge, with wings, was in the air above. The brief glance revealed a mile-long bird with a
mottled-green pterodactyl’s body.

  Hermes: Shit.

  Hecate: What?

  I held still and hoped the creature above wouldn’t notice me. Thankfully Xin wasn’t out here. I preferred she stay behind for a multitude of reasons. First, this place was gross. This swampland went on for endless miles, and ever since Dusk’s [Empowerment] failed, we had been stuck walking around looking for Requiem. My toes were caked with mush, and a smell unbefitting humanity assaulted my nostrils.

  Second, Requiem and I had a history that involved a lot of abuse and backstabbing. Those moments were not proud ones for me. I had been deliberately rude and spiteful to another human being for the purpose of getting him to quit, die to monsters, or kill him myself. None of those were actions I enjoyed. I rationalized them—they made sense to me at the time as needed—but it was like acting in a villain’s role.

  But the bird had noticed me. Or it had noticed the dead bodies. It was diving. Its head tilted, and one white beady eye locked on me. I looked down and concentrated on running away. [Blink] got me another thirty yards.

  The shadow grew denser, and a low hum came from overhead. I dove to the side with a second [Blink], then tried to gain distance. A mile of dead [Crazed Saw Tooth Snappers] and destroyed shrubs lay all around me. We had been fighting them and moving around for far too long. My legs burned as I stumbled through sticky swamp and bisected bodies. I had no time to care about loot or picking up hides. Despite my attempted escape, the shadow loomed closer. This monster was huge, overwhelmingly huge.

  My third reason for having Xin stay behind had to do with her safety. In [Haven Valley], Xin would be next to the portal. She could venture into the great beyond without much delay. Running from a giant angry bird intent upon scooping up dead bodies felt counterproductive to her safety.

  A message from my wife floated off to one side. I managed to type a response quickly.

  Hecate: You looked up, didn’t you? :)

  Hermes: Angryyybird!

  The bird’s jaw dug into mushy landscape like an albatross scooping up water for fish. Dead carcasses by the dozens fit into the [King Fang Fisher]’s mouth. Its wings beat by, but the shadow didn’t go away.

  I looked up, and a second one of those damned birds was coming down. Its huge mouth scooped up a stretch of surrounding terrain and me. It was huge enough that I was barely one piece of a mouthful. I ran over dead fantasy alligators and tried to get out of its mouth.

  “Rrargh!” Sound blasted around me from the giant bird’s protest.

  I leapt into the abyss of open air, then twisted around. Today wasn’t a day for running from fights. Today I was too pissed and tired to do more than fight them. Plus, aerial combat was far more exciting now.

  Two rapid [Blink]s put me at the creature’s face. The cooldown triggered blocking a third jump. I grabbed a ridge above its eye and dug in. Death grip and [Climber] skills kept me hanging on.

  “Rarrrhh!” It screeched at me.

  “Aghghgh!” I shouted back, then slipped while trying to stab it.

  The bird balked and pumped its wings to go higher. I dug in my hand and hung on as we climbed swiftly. Two months ago, this would have scared the crap out of me, but now it was just another day in Continue Online.

  “Listen up, dammit! I’m dirty!” I hacked away with a diminutive [Morrigu’s Gift]. “Tired!”

  The bird started to roll while I hung on. My stomach lurched as the world below spun. Swamp and meat slipped into my face.

  “And trying to save the world!”

  The creature’s eye turned bloody, and I stumbled. The hand I swung with ended up deep in mush, and the creature started to fall from the sky. The horizon spun, and my stomach lurched. Dusk was chirping and hissing wildly. Tiny claws kept kicking at my chest. We spun out of control, and I saw the first giant bird creature below us.

  “Dammit!”

  I reached for my shoe and slammed my palm upon the heel, activating [Power Armor]’s complete form. Metal covered every ounce of my skin, and Dusk’s chirps echoed. I kept yelling while turning into a falling meteor of man and metal. The path carried me straight through the other [King Fang Fisher]’s huge flapping wing. It gave a squawk, and I heard crunching as the wing bone under me bent at wrong angles. It flopped around, sending me spiraling in a new direction.

  [Power Armor] clinked out of place. The ground was growing closer. [Awareness Heightening] didn’t keep me calm, but my head at least functioned. Two fast [Blink]s cut some inertia. My body twisted around wildly, then slammed into the ground. Swamp dirt and roots dug into my face as Newton’s laws had their way with me even in virtual reality.

  I sat there awkwardly, face in the mud and rear in the air while I contemplated exactly what poor series of choices had brought me to this point. My health bar sat precariously low. I had no other message boxes to explain where my life went wrong. I groaned, feeling older than William Carver, but managed to get upright.

  My legs hurt like hell. The pain piled on top of my already damaged arms. ARC warning signals showed all sorts of neat information. At some point, my heartbeat had spiked to an uncomfortable range. One leg was cramping in response to mixed up mental signals. I tried to remember my cooldown exercises and stretched slowly.

  The swamp behind me had already started filling in. The two huge birds had paved a trail of death through the mud a quarter mile away. Their fresh carcasses were already being swarmed by monsters.

  “Voices, I hate this place,” I said.

  Dusk wiggled free and flew out of the toga. His diminutive wings flapped to get away. High [Reaction] converted the impulse to grab him and shake him into action.

  “And you! For once, you need to stop picking fights!”

  First, Dusk had turned tiny, sending us toward the ground and forcing us to walk for a day. That I’d accepted. All those monsters attacking us had happened because a miniaturized Dusk wanted to fight a baby crane chick. Even with reduced stature and attack points, Dusk couldn’t let his nature go for a few hours.

  The [Messenger’s Pet] tilted his head. He nipped at my hand, and I let him go. A picture of a smiley face appeared, and next to it was a single pink-frosted cupcake.

  “No, why would I give you a treat after that?” I shook him.

  The [Messenger’s Pet] calmly took to the air, hovering with both wings out and flapping. He hissed in my face, blasted a tiny fireball, then twisted in on himself. A moment later, Dusk had forcibly unsummoned himself from Continue Online. He would probably raid my Atrium anyway.

  I stomped in a circle and tried not to consider how messed up everything had turned out. The stupid [Altered Matrix] had turned into a dead end, and now I was out here in the ass-end of [Arcadia] on a fool’s quest running after a player I didn’t know well. Calming down took more effort than expected, but after a moment of reflection, I felt comfortable talking to my wife.

  Hermes: Hey, babe, I’m still alive. I think in the last hour, I’ve killed two hundred blood-crazed crocs, or whatever, and two of those birds. I’m beat, hungry, and pissed at Dusk. I need to take a break.

  Hecate: Do you want me to join you?

  Hermes: Not here. This place is a cesspit of filth. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to find Requiem at this rate.

  Hecate: Call me then?

  Hermes: I’ve got dinner at Liz’s later tonight. Can I call you after that? I plan on passing out soon.

  Hecate: All right. I love you. Tell the family hi.

  Hermes: Will do. I love you.

  I rubbed my face and couldn’t tell if I cleaned off some grime or added more. Seeing the state of my hands and clothes nearly made me puke. I found a still pool of water free of enemies, and cleaned myself off a little. This place sucked badly.

  Two days ago, Xin and I had been searching [Haven Valley] for a place to shove the key and unlock more paths for Locals and Travelers to use. There were apparently none anywhere that I or the other four could find. I’d left the key behind with SweetPea an
d made her promise not to use it personally. They could look and see if it fit, but turning it would cause huge amounts of reallife pain. None of those players should suffer real damage because I’d chosen them as William Carver.

  However, they were now almost locked in town, trying to find information. Awesome Jr. and his father were chatting, but no one had great ideas. It might have been possible that there was a key slot out in [ItRainsTooMuch], but the Voices had insisted there wasn’t.

  This event was stressful. Everyone saw the dwindling number of Locals and Travelers. [World Eater]s had increased in frequency and aggression. Not everyone could get around like we could, and those who were powerful enough to do so had mostly retired, weren’t logging in, had been deleted, or sat in [Haven Valley], helping prepare for a huge siege.

  Another message popped up.

  Thorny: Mom says don’t forget dinner tonight, and you’re bringing food! She’s doesn’t want to cook today.

  I looked up and spread my hands. “All right, everyone, I’m logging off!”

  Two days ago, after we realized how many people were watching me, Xin suggested that talking to viewers might allow for more people to dial into my character while I played. This whole being watched nonsense felt over the top. In theory, they couldn’t see my chat conversations or any menu options. The feed only showed me as a person moving around and audio.

  Fifty-three thousand people and change were keeping tabs on Hermes, watching what I was doing. The majority of those had arrived after I’d killed Nam Redrum. That served as reason number four not to have Xin out here. Without a decent place to set up the [Honeymoon Suite], I felt as though we were being judged for everything. The public displays of affection or unfiltered sounds weren’t even the worst of it.

  Leon, Trillium’s President, had reminded me that sooner or later, the nameless audience watching could realize who I was in real life. I had interacted with hundreds of ARC users in the last year. How small would the leap be from the man who had repaired their devices to Hermes as a character? From there, how quickly could they figure out Xin wasn’t a real person?